FEBRUARY 16
The Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos created for in vitro fertilization are children. The court arrived at that decision by combining the logic of the June 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, which referred to fetuses as “unborn human being(s)” (which it cited more than a dozen times), with an 1872 statute allowing parents to sue over the wrongful death of a child; if fetuses are “unborn human beings,” the reasoning went, then frozen embryos can be considered “extrauterine children.”
In a concurring opinion, Chief Justice Tom Parker cited the King James version of the Bible, biblical commentaries and Christian theologians as the basis for declaring the people of Alabama have adopted a “theologically based view of the sanctity of life.”
Parker spelled out the implications of this view explicitly: “Human life cannot be wrongfully destroyed without incurring the wrath of a holy God, who views the destruction of His image as an affront to Himself. … Even before birth, all human beings bear the image of God, and their lives cannot be destroyed without effacing his glory.”
Media Matters for America noted Parker also appeared on QAnon conspiracist and Christian nationalist Johnny Enlow’s program on the same day the ruling was released. There Parker claimed “God created government” and lamented that “we have let it go into the possession of others.”
Invoking the New Apostolic Reformation’s “Seven Mountain Mandate,” which declares Christians should achieve dominion by controlling seven major sectors of society, Parker continued, “And that’s why he is calling and equipping people to step back into these mountains right now.”
Screencap from the Feb. 16 edition of Restorre Seven’s “Someone You Should Know” with Alabama Chief Justice Tom Parker.
FEBRUARY 20
Politico highlighted the work of Russell Vought, former director of the Office of Management and Budget for Trump, who has founded The Center for Renewing America think tank, part of a confederation of organizations who are laying out an agenda for a second Trump term. CRA explicitly touts promoting “Christian nationalism” as a top priority (along with invoking the insurrection act immediately to suppress protests), and the CRA website declares its mission to be “renew(ing) a consensus of America as a nation under God.”
FEBRUARY 22
In a packed ballroom at the annual gathering of National Religious Broadcasters at Nashville’s Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center, Donald Trump walked onto the stage after a recording of the “Star-Spangled Banner” was played, sung by a group who have been convicted and imprisoned because of their role in the violent January 6 insurrection.
RNS reported that Trump made an explicit promise to the gathered leaders of conservative Christian media outlets: “If I get in, you’re going to be using that power at a level that you’ve never used before.”
Trump also repeated his promise (made in a December campaign event in Iowa) that one of his first acts of his second term would be to set up a task force to root out “anti-Christian bias.” He received enthusiastic applause from promises to promote school vouchers, seal the United States’ Southern border and ensure America would have only two genders — male and female. He finished with a flourish, “We have to bring back our religion. … We have to bring back Christianity.”
ALSO FEBRUARY 22
In my own backyard in Washington, D.C., Steve Bannon hosted the opening panel at the Conservative Political Action Conference. The first speaker was right-wing activist Jack Posobiec. Holding up a silver cross necklace in a clinched fist, he declared, “Welcome to the end of democracy. We are here to overthrow it completely. We didn’t get all the way there on January 6, but we will endeavor to get rid of it and replace it with this right here. We’ll replace it with this right here.”
Bannon responded, “Ho-ho-ho, alright, amen!”
As NBC News reported, Posobiec continued: “Because all glory is not to government. All glory to God! … After we burn that swamp to the ground, we will establish the new American republic on its ashes, and our first order of business will be righteous retribution for those who betrayed America.”
I’ll wrap with the opening line from Charles Blow’s insightful recent New York Times column: “If you don’t think this country is sliding toward theocracy, you’re not paying attention.”
Robert P. Jones
Robert P. Jones serves as president and founder of PRRI and is the author of The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy and the Path to a Shared American Future and White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity, which won a 2021 American Book Award.
This column originally appeared on Robert P. Jones’s substack #WhiteTooLong.